Content:
This manuscript consists of poetic lines on the death of Abraham
Lincoln, lines that begin with the words "Thou
West that gave'st him to us." The lines were not published during Whitman's lifetime, and although they focus on Lincoln's death, do not share direct similarities with "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" or other poems in the "Memories of President Lincoln" cluster. The lines were posthumously published in a
Facsimile Edition of
Drum-Taps
in 1959. On the reverse of this leaf (loc.00051) is a draft of the first stanza of the poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!"
